Rabbit Door

A quick guide to making a elegant door to keep your pet in your room of choice. Complete with window, door knob and latch.

This is documented post-build, but the steps required to get to this stage should be simple enough, a few hours in the shed will probably suffice.

Our rabbit is a semi-tame wild rabbit that was rescued from a cat as a baby (is levret the correct term for a baby rabbit?) So it has access to a network of hutches tunnels and runs in the garden. As well as permenant access to the conservatory. This door is to allow it access to the rest of the house, when it's appropriate to have a mischivious rabbit nibbling our plants and peoples toes. She does have a name, but like Red Dwarf's Cat, she's just refered to as 'Rabbit.'

Most of the cutting was done with a jigsaw (for my door) and a bandsaw (for the rabbit's door). A drill, hammer and mesuring devices are also required.

Supplies:

Step 1: The Basic Rabbit Door

The basic door is 2 pieces of wood, the same shape, fastened together with a piece of transparent plastic squashed between them for a window. Later it became apparant that there was a significant draft around the edges of the rabbit door, so thin fabric was also sandwiched between the layers, then trimmed to fit.

My original intention was to paint the door a lovely forest green, like the hobbit's front door. But various family members were not keen on the idea, so it remains unpainted, and the line of nails remain looking out of place.

Step 2: Extra Bits

To make this into a proper door, it needs hinges, a door knob and a lock.

The hinge is a short section of piano lid hinge, and short brass screws. Predrill holes to stop the wood splitting.

The door knob is a brass draw handle from our old kitchen, I tried to reduce the size of this on the lathe, but found that they are actually hollow. So it's oversized in proportion to the rest of the door, but the rabbit won't mind.

The hook is cut out of a scrap of steel (from the casing of a broken cd drive). The rabbit isn't cunning enough to unlatch it, and even then it'd be unable to pull the door open.

Step 3: Fitting

All done, screw in the hinges to the big door, partially hammer in a thick staple for the latch to hook into.

This is an interior door, and hence the security risk is low, but if you plan to do something like this on an exterior house door please bear in mind that a swift kick will open up an arm sized hole in your door. A clever thief equipped with a length of wire, or a fishing rod would be quite pleased about that.

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19 Discussions

Man, this was clever. I can see how this would help if, for example, the rabbit was outside in a fenced-in area and you wanted to keep it out for a while. Or if you babysit a neibor's cat, this would help if the cat chased the poor thing. It could simply run out the door and the cat would not be able to follow. So clever........ never would have thought of it...... good idea!

Oh my goodness, this is the cutest thing ever! I might have to put one of these on the door that separates my bedroom from the rest of the apartment. Sometimes the house bunny is allowed to roam, but sometimes not.

Funnily enough she's really tidy, and keeps to one spot outside on the lawn. It does mean we have a small mound of droppings, but the surrounding grass grows much quicker than the rest of the lawn, so it's usually hidden.

do you let your bun run freely outside or do you have it in a pen or fenced in? Im considering moving mine outside as he seems to think my home is his litter box. (P.S. i have tried scooping his pellets into the litter box. the face method. and just about any feasible idea on the web)

Circumstances have changed now and we have another two rabbits that need to be kept separate from this one. They now have the garden during the day, and a hutch at night. This one has the house and an outside run connected to the house by a cat flap and tunnel. Still no mess in the house though, wild rabbits must still have the instinct not to contaminate their burrows.

A startled rabbit on a hardwood floor is a very amusing sight. Rabbits are rear wheel drive animals, and therefore can perform spectacular powerslides going around corners at speed.
But no, no problems there, they are all happy on all the surfaces we have, grass, paving, carpet, lino, wood and tiles.

You can train them, tho it's easier when they're younger. After one makes a mess (and I mean as quickly as you can, and this applies to either variety of mess) stick the bunny's nose in the mess, say 'no' loudly and firmly, and then put the rabbit (again, firmly) where you want it to go, like a cage or litterbox. It shouldn't take long for them to get it.
The chewing, tho... I haven't figured out how to prevent that yet.

Rabbit was hiding out in the garden somewhere...she doesn't like people poking around with her things.
In reply to your message below, when I said rescued, I meant my sister and father chased a cat away and nursed the rabbit back to health. No medical interference at all.
She does occasionally hide under a table and 'pounce' on peoples feet though, gives them a quick nip and runs off.

Great instructable. Adopting a rabbit from a rescue means it will usually be spayed or neutered 1st. That will make the litterbox training easier and they can bond more easily w/ other buns w/o accidental kits. Of course, there could be exceptions. I have both (neutered and unneutered buns). The neutered/spayed ones are super clean housekeepers and don't spray on everything (the males especially are worse). I use some hard wood in my rabbit's houses for them to munch on. They sometimes ignore it it's so hard.

Very cute. My only interior door is the bathroom door, small house, so I don't have any place to put one.
mrmath - I have three house rabbits and they are all litter box trained. Sometimes I find little brown marbles outside the cage but they are 95% perfect. You can get more information from the House Rabbit Society at rabbit.ORG.

Reminds me of the tiny door in Alice in Wonderland. You should mount a tiny table to the door with a wooden cookie that says "eat me" on it. Your rabbit would likely take this invitation seriously though.